ADELBODEN, Switzerland – Switzerland’s Olympic champion Marco Odermatt overcame foggy conditions to reign yet again in the World Cup giant slalom on his home slope of Adelboden.
Odermatt dominated in a wire-to-wire win at Adelboden to join skiing greats Ingemar Stenmark and Hermann Maier by winning in three straight years on the storied Chuenisbärgli course that is a rolling cow pasture in summer.
He celebrated with a body-surfing leap onto the finish-area safety barrier, sliding across the padded fence on his back to raucous cheers from most fans in a 24,000 sold-out crowd.
Odermatt added to his huge 1.04-second lead from the first run to finish 1.26 ahead of Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Croatia’s Filip Zubcic was third, trailing Odermatt by 1.77, AP reported.
Kilde already was assured of a career-best result in giant slalom as he smiled and laughed in the finish area watching Odermatt´s peerless run and exuberant celebration.
Odermatt sealed victory in worsening visibility yet his second-run time was beaten only by River Radamus of the United States who finished fourth after placing 20th in the first run.
“It was amazing. It was obviously not an easy nice race today,” said Odermatt, who emerged clearly on the television broadcast out of the foggy gloom about midway down the course.
Fog sitting across the top of the Chuenisbärgli hill forced organizers to shorten a course that typically takes about 1 minute, 20 seconds to a 58-second run.
A 29th career win in World Cup races for the 26-year-old Odermatt was an 18th in his preferred giant slalom discipline – including seven in a row since March – where he is the current Olympic, world, and World Cup champion.
Odermatt extended his lead in the overall World Cup standings as the strong favorite for a third straight season-long title. The 2020 overall champion Kilde is his nearest, and distant, active challenger after Marco Schwarz suffered a season-ending knee injury in downhill last month while leading the standings.
The Adelboden giant slalom has been a World Cup fixture since the first week of men´s racing in January 1967.
In those 67 years, only Stenmark and Maier won Switzerland´s signature giant slalom in at least three straight years. Stenmark won four in a row through 1982 and Maier won all three that could be raced between 1998 and 2001.
Odermatt´s 18 World Cup giant slalom wins is tied for fifth all time, with Stenmark far ahead on 46. Ted Ligety of the United States is third on the career list with 24 wins.
With Saturday’s result, Odermatt has finished on the podium in 21 straight starts in World Cup giant slalom since March 2021 and won 16 of those races. His last loss was by just 0.03 to Schwarz last February at Palisades Tahoe, California.
Kilde’s previous best result in giant slalom was fourth at Adelboden in 2021 and was a rare better finish than his partner Mikaela Shiffrin, who excels in the discipline. Shiffrin placed ninth Saturday in a giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
“I had a really, really fun time today. Challenging for sure, couldn´t see much, because it was icy on the lenses,” said Kilde, a 31-year-old Norwegian who praised the warmth of Swiss fans toward him despite being Odermatt´s biggest rival. “It´s melting my heart and this heart is not getting any younger.”
The Swiss village resort was blanketed with fresh snow Saturday one year after its classic race was run on a ribbon of artificial surface surrounded by green fields.
The race started under light falling snow with temperatures of minus-1 Celsius (30 F) at the finish area where most fans gathered beneath the steep final slope.
